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Magento has made it easy for customers to do their payments.

No matter how you try to do the marketing and no matter how nice you set up your products, if customers find it difficult to follow the payment procedures, most probably they would, at the last minute abandon their carts. And this is what Magento knows. That is why it has included in its system more and more ways to make payment a breeze and more accessible to everybody.

It has incorporated different major payment gateways and also some alternative paying methods. Such alternative paying methods include Google, Amazon and PayPal. Aside from these, customers also have the option to pay through money order or check order. Or, using Magento Connect, they could also opt for purchase order or payment extensions.

Aside from these, there are more payment options available.

Exclusive to Enterprise, customers can choose to use customer store credits or gift certificates or gift cards, either virtual or physical is okay.

As for Pay Pal, Magento has integrated these various Paypal gateways that customers can choose from: PayPal PayFlo Pro, Website Payments Pro (Direct or Express), Website Payment Standard and Website Payments Pro UK (also Direct or Standard).

It also has Authorize.net and Google Checkout (Level 2) integrated.

Amazon Payments are also integrated, Checkout by Amazon and Amazon Simple Pay
It can be configured to exclusively authorize only or exclusively charge only or, both authorize and charge the creation of invoices

It also allows offline payment through saved credit card method

As for payment extensions, Magento connect has the following payment gateways: Fontis Australia, Fontis Payment, Cybersource,, Protx, Tweakmag Payment, SPPLUS, WorldPay, Bank Prepayment, Cash On Delivery, Ogone Payment, among others.

Each customer has his or her own comfort in terms of payment method, depending on his or her location, the availability of funds and other issues that could affect the customers choice in paying. And, with the limitless possibilities of payment method that Magento offers, there can be no reason why a customer would lose interest in continuing to buy your product and just leave their shopping cart in the middle of the payment process.

The best online shopping cart sites are the ones that focus on the customer’s needs. When it comes to using your shopping cart site to market products your customer’s experience should be encouraging and comfortable. Force and limited offer tactics have a lower percentage of working, but a shopping experience built on customer service and additional perks keeps a customer loyal.

Magento shopping cart modules are aimed to give a customer the ability to choose their shopping experience. The only difference between actual department store shopping and virtual e-shopping is the travel. With an e-commerce site, a shopper experiences the joys of going from window to window and choosing the colors for products.

Your customer can choose several settings that provide them with what they need without any pressure of purchase. Some features of the Magento shopping cart enhance any shopper experience. Promotion features which is most used is the Wish List; this feature is for the window shoppers and the people who practice saving money for purchases. The Wish List is most often a step away from a purchase which is usually a scheduled one. Expert Internet marketing studies show a big factor for purchasing a product or a service is timing. Most people are smart buyers, needs are prioritized and credit card purchases are set at a minimum. Just because a person adds a Wish List and doesn’t purchase outright doesn’t mean no purchase will be done, this feature is a virtual goal set by the customer that will be a sale in time.

Enable the Wish List feature by going to System>Configuration then click at the Wish List tab found in the left column and select YES from the Enabled drop-down menu. Once you go back to the shopping cart you will see an Add Wish List link for all products in category pages and product pages. A shopper clicking the link to the Wish List is directed to their very own Wish List page where they can add and remove products on their shopping cart. To get to the Wish List though a customer has to register for an account and sign-in, connecting registration information to the Wish List is a must.

The Wish List page has a strip of highlighted text that names the brand and the item added to the list. An image of the item is found at the let part of the page while the middle of the page is a Comment box for the customer to fill in with personal notes. The date the item was added is shown near the button option links for Add to Cart or Remove Item. The bottom of the Wish List page has the Share Wish List, Add All to Cart and Update Wish List options. Each link directs the customer to share email or the shopping cart or the edit page of the list.

For every item an e-shopper puts in a wish list, there is an Add to Cart button that can transfer the item to the shopping cart and purchase is processed right away. Having this feature has a ripple affect since an e-shopper has an option to Share Wish List. The Share Wish List is an effective word of mouth promotion of your products and services.

Participation is spread since a customer endorses a product via Share Wish List email. The sharing feature informs customers’ husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, friends and relatives what they would want for a gift. One thing I like about the Wish List feature is that a customer has a choice of what template to use for a Share Wish List email. Nicely presented as a nicely designed web page mail which shows the item and the comments the sharer has typed.

An effective shopping experience is one done in a site that has friendly service and promises to be there when they come back.